Thai Visa's Excellent Communication Potential

[qwertz]

As regular readers will know already, I love a good chuckle and I get a lot from this forum.

BTW, this not a whinge but I confess to be a little saddened when a good long running thread is shut down (rightly so, mods) because it has deteriorated into a bun fight.

The very large membership is a tribute to the amount of good information and helpful advice that help to bring people from all over the world together.

Am I right in thinking that it was also intended as a potential platform for making friends rather than enemies?

I'm certain that if most of you met, you'd come across quite differently than here on the board.

It's just not good sense to burn out threads with attacks on people you don't know and are never likely to meet.

And besides, I hope I'm not just speaking for myself here, it's robbing me of my enjoyment.

Mods, if you find this post at all disagreeable, please read it and close it, otherwise let it run for comments from others.

[MTW]

Well I am surprised nobody has answered and this has been open for a long time now. I am probably the wrong person to respond, for whatever reasons I won't spell out. But I have seen some rather serious lashing out on some threads where I have not participated so have no personal feelings and have been shocked to say the least.

Sometimes, based on the topic, I can see people are kind of asking for it. But sometimes it just seems ridiculous. Other times there seem to be people who seem to be asking for it time and time again, but because their topics I guess are "Thailand friendly" nobody points out anything to them. And by this I don't mean PC. I can point out one guy Sunshine 13 who kept writing things which to me was showing he was very into kids to put it nicely. Everyone was answering his questions nicely like he was just a stupid guy who couldn't figure things out and not noticing the 20 or so mentions of how he likes to look at "wet kids at the waterpark" or how he wanted to buy all his girlfriends gifts of waterpark tickets, about how his girlfriends were all teenagers, and he was more than 65, he even stated once that "most of his friends in Thailand were teenagers". Maybe he was a troll but however, why would nobody but me jump on this guy and call it for what it might be, when we know this country attracks child sex criminals, but we attack other people for totally innocent but what we think is stupid things?

One guy went on my apology letter and called me a "compulsive attention seeker" and then counted or made up the amount of times I used "I" in my letter. How ridiculous can you get? Can he suggest a better way of taking responsibility for myself without using the word "I" and would that make him feel better or is he just jumping on the bandwagon?

Another guy, I wrote a letter to, in response to him calling me a Thai basher or hater or something, when all that was new to me several months ago, a letter I now reread and find it nice, well thought out and reasonable, and it was never responded to, and that I even apologized later for if I flew off the handle, told me in the dog warning letter thread to never write him again as if I have been stalking him or something. It seems to be like the mob mentality. Everyone else is attacking you, so I will jump in now too and throw a few punches.

Some people who have doubted that I exist, I have written privately and told then to write other posters here who have known me the whole time I have lived here, who have been writing here for years, and they don't do it, and yet they keep writing the same crap that I don't exist that I am a liar, and that is just beyond all belief to me. People like that should be kicked off this forum in my opinion, there is no need for that here. What would be the point in doing that other than you have fun doing it at my expense?

How many other people are doing the same thing to others here, I can only wonder?

Thanks for bringing this up qwertz and I hope people will reform and won't be so shy as we can see they are about writing something here. Some people I have to say, who I am not saying are jerks, did write on the forum and to me privately to apologize or put out a friendly hand, and those are real gentlemen. I can respect that. Ihope there will be more people who will express that they don't like some of the poster bashing going on needlessly here.

Edited June 28, 2007 by MTW

[meom]

If you take things to serious and use the forum as a substitute for interaction with real people in real life I guess you get disappointed quick.

[jetjock]

BTW, this not a whinge but I confess to be a little saddened when a good long running thread is shut down (rightly so, mods) because it has deteriorated into a bun fight.

Am I right in thinking that it was also intended as a potential platform for making friends rather than enemies?

The shutting down of good threads due to a few bad eggs has also been a pet annoyance for me. Perhaps they should have a subtopic forum titled "Trash Talk" where instead of shutting the thread down, the 'Mods' can have a place to move the thread over so it can continue and the trash talkers can have their own place and not disturb the people that are here for the right reason.

I think it would also be an improvement if TV had a subtopic forum titled 'Not so Thai' to also keep interesting threads from being closed. A few days ago, I came accross a very interesting thread where they started talking about the movie called 'Sicko' by Michael Moore about problems in the health care systems. In the middle reading the thread, the 'Mod' came on and shut the thread saying that it is not about Thailand ! IMHO people in Thailand will also be going to see the movie and also have problems in their health care system and although not 100% Thai related, it would have been nice if they could have moved to an appropriate place where the thread could have continued. I am not familiar enough with the forum to know how to give them complaints and suggestions.

I have not been on TV forum very long, but during the past few weeks, I have had some free time because my wife is currently back in Thailand visiting friends and family so have spent a little time learning my way around the forum. I believe you are correct that it was intended as a platform for making friends, sharing humour, and discussing issues with people that also share a common interest in LOS.

It is obvious that the vast majority of TV members are here for the right reasons above however it is also an obvious reality that there are a few members that are just disagreeable, trouble makers with nasty dispositions that most likely have no friends in real life so TV is their only outlet to live a life. Humour is great and roasting people can be funny if done correctly but it does get tiresome reading some of these losers making genuinely mean remarks and trying to cammouflage it with a crude attempt at humour. IMHO the only thing redeeming about these type of people is that it is amusing to watch there attempts at trying to bring themselves up by putting others down. In a way I guess we should feel sad for these lonely souls

TV is a great forum with a lot of great people. Like anything else TV has room for improvement and hopefully with all the great members on board it will continue to get better and better.

[qwertz]

JJ, that's why I initiated the thread, to try to point out to newer BMs that the great majority on the board post because they like the cyber-company.

They shouldn't get angry or discouraged and hit back if one or two of the usual suspects post iffy remarks.

We all have to go through a learning curve and a few of us have been yellow carded in the past or given an unexpected holiday for exceeding the bounds of propriety.

As several BMs pointed out, they feel as they're being mobbed or attacked.

To all of you "newbies", from a relative "newbie", a lot of it is jest.

It might not appeal to your particular sense of humour.

But read it twice and give yourself time to either ignore it or prepare a dignified (or humorous) retort within forum rules.

If TV needs improvement, maybe it should begin with us and what we post.

Thanks for your interest.

[ThaiPauly]

This is just my opinion, take it or leave it.

Many people who post here do so from the comfort of their annonimity.

Those that constanly flame and troll will never show themselves at a Thia Visa get together as they are too ashamed of what they post. They more than likely regret that, but they isolate themselves

People that build themselves up to be something they are not in real life ...if you see my point.

The sign of a well balanced TV Memeber is that they make personal freinds here and attend get togthethers.

When I go out to an TV get together I seem to always meet people who's postings make sense, if not always agreeing with each other...

The Trolls and the general "Pain is the asses" types never appear...even if hey say they are going to.

I have made many stupid posts ...especially in my early days on TV, with the warnings to go with them..and these normally happen when I have been under he influence so to speak.

Now if I make a post or post a reply in that condition I always wait for one minute and re-read what I have said before posting. Nine times out of ten I will hit the cancel button.

My brain seems to have adopted the "If you have nothing nice to say or value to add...then don't do it" Even if I am worse or wear.

There is not much worse than waking up with a sore head in the morning and gingerley turning on the Computer thinking OMG what did I post last night????

Thats why despite such a high post count which has accumulated over three years I will hardly get involved in any threads that are descending into flame wars.

There is just no point...other than keeping people entertained who have a morbid outlok on life.

As I said at the start......This is just my personal take...does not mean it has to be everone's.

TP

Reason for edit: Smelling Pisstakes

Edited June 29, 2007 by ThaiPauly

[OlRedEyes]

Is TV an internet forum or a friendship/social club?

The sign of a well balanced TV Memeber is that they make personal freinds here and attend get togthethers.

Methinks everybody takes themselves and the general chatter on the forum too seriously.

Edited June 29, 2007 by OlRedEyes

[ThaiPauly]

Is TV an internet forum or a friendship/social club?

The sign of a well balanced TV Memeber is that they make personal freinds here and attend get togthethers.

Methinks everybody takes themselves and the general chatter on the forum too seriously.

All depends on what you want to get out of it I suppose

Nothing wrong with making freinds

[November Rain]

I agree with some of the sentiments expressed to a degree. I've met 3 TV members (that I know of). All have made an effort to get in touch with me when they came to town & I've liked all 3 of them very much. Only one was quite different from his 'screen persona', the other 2 were what I would have expected.

I like TV as a social outlet. Most days I don't get much adult human contact, and TV provides an outlet for me. I do think some members just like winding others up, but I think that most are fairly genuine & just get rubbed up the wrong way by some other members (personality clashes seem magnified on here). While I do think that some hide behind the anonymity, others just get riled at some subjects or views expresssed & I believe would say the same things in a face-to-face discussion/debate/argument/quarrel.

[jetjock]

Is TV an internet forum or a friendship/social club?

Methinks everybody takes themselves and the general chatter on the forum too seriously.

With regards to your question, in my humble opinion it appears that it is can be a little of both depending on one's preference.

I would agree with you if you had said that some people take themselves and their opinions too seriously but then again there are some people on the opposite extreme that take absolutely nothing seriously and have made TV their personal playground for nastiness or useless and destructive comments on subjects about which it is obvious they know nothing. I guess that one thing I have learned on this forum is that there are some people that just like to hear the sound of their own voice !

Edited June 29, 2007 by jetjock

[wolfmanjack]

Is TV an internet forum or a friendship/social club?

Methinks everybody takes themselves and the general chatter on the forum too seriously.

With regards to your question, in my humble opinion it appears that it is can be a little of both depending on one's preference.

I would agree with if you had said that some people take themselves and their opinions too seriously but then again there are some people on the opposite end that take absolutely nothing seriously and have made TV their personal playground for nastiness and useless and destructive comments on subjects about which it is obvious they know nothing. I guess that one thing I have learned on this forum is that there are some people that just like to hear the sound of their own voice !

Many of these same people are the type that will not let you finish a sentence in any conversation. I have met several people here that think what they have to say is more important than listening to other opinions. Many of these people will ask you a question and then not let you answer. After 2 words they jump back in and start jacking their jaws. They can't do that on this forum so it winds them up even more.

Qwertz,

I made a thread a while back suggesting that the OP could bar certain users from posting on their thread. This kind of gives the OP a limited ownership of the thread and can control if it gets closed or not. I thought this was a good idea since the mods do not have time to delete all of the flames and other off topic posts that cause a good thread to get closed. In my opinion it would be a good way that the original poster could keep his thread alive by monitoring the thread himself. All of the posts could be available to the Mods so they could check if the OPer was censoring the thread to only show one point of view or only deleting out the flames. It was suggested to me that i get used to the flames and threads being closed because of them since that is the way it is and will always be.

[bendix]

I would agree with you if you had said that some people take themselves and their opinions too seriously but then again there are some people on the opposite extreme that take absolutely nothing seriously and have made TV their personal playground for nastiness or useless and destructive comments on subjects about which it is obvious they know nothing. I guess that one thing I have learned on this forum is that there are some people that just like to hear the sound of their own voice !

At the risk of disturbing the sanctimonious complacency of this thread . . . . .

I presume the underlying implication of each post is that the poster excludes themselves from the generalised criticisms of others contained in each post.

I would like to be more honest. I hereby put my hand up and say that I regularly make numerous comments on subjects that I have absolutely no knowledge of. Further, I sometimes make comments on issues I don't even care about. That's because - get this - it's an internet forum, a combination of information and amusement.

Oh, and for the record, I also like the sound of my own voice.

Thanks for listening.

[Gary A]

This is just my opinion, take it or leave it.

Many people who post here do so from the comfort of their annonimity.

Those that constanly flame and troll will never show themselves at a Thia Visa get together as they are too ashamed of what they post. They more than likely regret that, but they isolate themselves

People that build themselves up to be something they are not in real life ...if you see my point.

The sign of a well balanced TV Memeber is that they make personal freinds here and attend get togthethers.

When I go out to an TV get together I seem to always meet people who's postings make sense, if not always agreeing with each other...

The Trolls and the general "Pain is the asses" types never appear...even if hey say they are going to.

I have made many stupid posts ...especially in my early days on TV, with the warnings to go with them..and these normally happen when I have been under he influence so to speak.

Now if I make a post or post a reply in that condition I always wait for one minute and re-read what I have said before posting. Nine times out of ten I will hit the cancel button.

My brain seems to have adopted the "If you have nothing nice to say or value to add...then don't do it" Even if I am worse or wear.

There is not much worse than waking up with a sore head in the morning and gingerley turning on the Computer thinking OMG what did I post last night????

Thats why despite such a high post count which has accumulated over three years I will hardly get involved in any threads that are descending into flame wars.

There is just no point...other than keeping people entertained who have a morbid outlok on life.

As I said at the start......This is just my personal take...does not mean it has to be everone's.

TP

Reason for edit: Smelling Pisstakes

Well Pauly, I am a bit particular who I drink with, BUT, I'd be happy to have a beer with you anytime. I'm also not much of a socializer but would certainly go to a Thai Visa function if it were convenient and NOT 650 kilometers from where I live.

[lingling]

One guy went on my apology letter and called me a "compulsive attention seeker" and then counted or made up the amount of times I used "I" in my letter. How ridiculous can you get? Can he suggest a better way of taking responsibility for myself without using the word "I" and would that make him feel better or is he just jumping on the bandwagon?

I think he was right. You used the word "I" 29 times in this reply - again turning the topic from "TV's excellent communication potential" to "MTW".

[sriracha john]

I think Thaivisa has excellent potential for communicating to its members, any events occuring in Thailand:

U.S. singer Christina Aguilera performance during her 'Back to Basics' tour in Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday June 28, 2007.

Associated Press

*ok, ok.. I admit I was simply trying to find a thread to slot this into... and by a coin toss, this thread won out over the other contending thread detailing how TAT was predicting more "liveliness" in Thailand next year.*

[soundman]

TV is a number of things.

Source of information (with the right filtering technology applied ).

Great entertainment value. - better than watching tele.

Potential source of friends.

I think the IP (Internet Personality) of longer term posters is reasonably defining. Everbody has off days & spins a yarn or two. No probs there, once members have been around you generally get the picture of what they are on about.

Cheers,

Soundman.

[qwertz]

I would agree with you if you had said that some people take themselves and their opinions too seriously but then again there are some people on the opposite extreme that take absolutely nothing seriously and have made TV their personal playground for nastiness or useless and destructive comments on subjects about which it is obvious they know nothing. I guess that one thing I have learned on this forum is that there are some people that just like to hear the sound of their own voice !

At the risk of disturbing the sanctimonious complacency of this thread . . . . .

I presume the underlying implication of each post is that the poster excludes themselves from the generalised criticisms of others contained in each post.

I would like to be more honest. I hereby put my hand up and say that I regularly make numerous comments on subjects that I have absolutely no knowledge of. Further, I sometimes make comments on issues I don't even care about. That's because - get this - it's an internet forum, a combination of information and amusement.

Oh, and for the record, I also like the sound of my own voice.

Thanks for listening.

I like this one!

Honesty is a rare commodity, bendix.

Please don't ever change.

BTW, I did say US in my post.

I wuz warned!

I have to keep my flame trigger well under control and on safety at times.

[OlRedEyes]

Is TV an internet forum or a friendship/social club?

Methinks everybody takes themselves and the general chatter on the forum too seriously.

With regards to your question, in my humble opinion it appears that it is can be a little of both depending on one's preference.

I would agree with you if you had said that some people take themselves and their opinions too seriously but then again there are some people on the opposite extreme that take absolutely nothing seriously and have made TV their personal playground for nastiness or useless and destructive comments on subjects about which it is obvious they know nothing. I guess that one thing I have learned on this forum is that there are some people that just like to hear the sound of their own voice !

The above was a response to a statement, which you omitted

The sign of a well balanced TV Memeber is that they make personal freinds here and attend get togthethers.

I agree, I should have said 'some'. The original statement remains <deleted>.

[canuckamuck]

Personally I think there is a learning curve involved here. As I observe comments and make exchanges I realize where I sounded like a total jerk or times when I had no idea what I was talking about.

Forums like this are a great reality check. If you’re a bit of a nutter, jerk, or cry baby, posters will soon have your scorecard and if you’re paying attention you will soon have a good idea of how you sound to the world. What you do with that information is up to you. If you’re a jerk and you keep being a jerk, than you have to live with that. Jerks are usually the most honest though, most people can't handle the truth.

I try to avoid comments, where my input would be purely negative; I always have to work on my rampant cynicism. It comes from the fact that I know everything and everyone else is stupid.

I like the fact that we have both the sharks and the cuddlers here. It’s kind of Darwinian. I also appreciate that the mods are excellent and other than removing my posts, I feel they make good decisions.

[November Rain]

It comes from the fact that I know everything and everyone else is stupid.

I can completely identify with that feeling, as I suspect, can many other TV members - discretion forbids mentioning any names...

[qwertz]

A forum is a good exercise in penmanship.

I know people who can barely spell their own names but in person, they're intelligent and witty.

Others can write beautiful prose-like missives although they're dull as ditchwater.

For some, the pen is mightier than the sword and they can really lay into you with the written word with views that they'd be too timid to air to your face.

Then again, some others just don't have the verbal skills to adequately express their feelings, doubts and fears and prefer to write it down in the hope that you'll get the message.

So, welcome to the forum, everyone.